House Budget Eyes Mental Health

RICHMOND — Budget writers in the House of Delegates will take aim at waiting lists for mental health care when they introduce their version of the state budget today, significantly expanding what Gov. Timothy M. Kaine had proposed.

They also plan to fully fund the approximately $42 million of other mental health reforms the governor wants, although the money will be reconfigured to give state officials more flexibility in deciding how to spend it.

Both the House and Senate will introduce competing state budgets today, kicking off a debate over spending priorities for the final 20 days of the General Assembly session. Lawmakers are scheduled to leave Richmond on March 8.

Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, said the House will focus on a program that allows the mentally disabled to receive care closer to home instead of in an institution.

Known in budget-speak as the MR waiver, the program has waiting lists that number in the hundreds.

Kaine proposed funding 150 waiver slots over the two-year budget.

The House will propose adding another 650, bringing the total to 800. The cost of that expansion, about $30 million, will be drawn from other areas of the budget that are being cut.

Even this proposal will only keep pace with a waiting list that constantly expands.

"We will not be cutting into the waiting list with any significance," Hamilton said. "But we have to make sure it doesn't get any longer."

Mental health became a priority for Kaine and lawmakers after a troubled student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech last year. Kaine's package of reforms will get the nod from House budget writers, but they plan to pool the money and allow mental health experts to draw from it as they see fit, rather than fund specific line items.

While there is general agreement that mental health is a priority, Republicans have taken a dim view of the governor's plan to expand preschool, especially with an estimated $1.4 billion shortfall in the 2009-1010 budget.